Anime#36--Comic-Con

Comic-Con is not strictly anime, but it's so huge and so many anime industry announcements and events take place there, I thought it'd be worth mentioning. Every year since 1970, Comic Con International has been held in San Diego, California. (hence the nickname, San Diego Comic Con. SDCC is not affiliated with New York Comic Con which has only been running for a few years)

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/

Because so many people come to Comic Con, many anime studios save their announcements for it, instead of Anime Expo or some other large anime convention where people would actually care. I don't see how they benefit from announcing at Comic Con, because when half the attendees are there for the newest superhero flick or whatever Pixar's doing and don't care in the least what titles Viz acquired, it kind of defeats the purpose of it, don't you think? But then again, maybe this is a chance to expose themselves to the other geek-doms that are most likely to be converted to otaku.

ANN always has great coverage of the anime and manga side of Comic Con, like they do for Anime Expo, Otakon, and the various other conventions they cover. Check it out here.

Comic-Con is the biggest convention of its kind, with an expected 126,000 attendees this year--which is capacity! They've sold out all their passes! Their guests, according to wikipedia, which is probably according to the Comic-Con website, include:

Mike Allred, Kevin J. Anderson, Sergio Aragonés, John Barrowman, Ramón Valdiosera Berman, Gerald Brom, Tim Burton, Gerard Butler, James Cameron, Park Chan-Wook, Gene Colan, Nicola Cuti, Russell T Davies, Felicia Day, Johnny Depp, Omar Dogan, Kevin Eastman, Steve Epting, Mark Evanier, June Foray, Ramona Fradon, Hunter Freberg, Stan Freberg, Julie Gardner, Gary Gianni, Jimmy Gownley, Seth Green, Kevin Greutert, Michael C. Hall, Russ Heath, Brian Herbert, James Jean, Geoff Johns, Eric Jones, Kazu Kibuishi, Dennis Kitchen, Hope Larson, Nick Langley, John Lasseter, Taylor Lautner, Jim Lee, Steven Lisberger, Francis Manapul, Dwayne McDuffie, Hayao Miyazaki, Doug Moench, Sheldon Moldoff, Fabio Moon, Olivia Munn, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Patrick Oliphant, Amanda Palmer, Jim Parsons, Stephen Pastis, Robert Pattinson, Kevin Pereira, David Petersen, Danny Rosenblatt, Jerry Robinson, Mike Royer, Stan Sakai, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Seth, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gail Simone, Leonard Starr, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Mae Stover, J. Michael Straczynski, David Tennant, Richard Thompson, Natalie Tran, Lewis Trondheim, Michael Uslan, Jerry Vanderstelt, Charles Vess, Landry Walker, Adam West, Wil Wheaton, Bill Willingham, Gene Yang, Leinil Yu, Robert Zemeckis and more to be announced.

Everyone from RPattz to Hayao Miyazaki! It looks intimidating, but Comic-Con's just like any other convention. Only it's really, really (REALLY) big.

Reviews #11--Eyeshield 21

Eyeshield 21, written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata and formerly serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump.


Eyeshield is one of my favorite series, and is also one of the best sports mangas I've ever read--although that doesn't mean a whole lot, as I don't read that many sports mangas. The protagonist, like any good sports manga--or shonen in general, is an underdog with an uncanny natural ability for football. Sena Kobayakawa was picked on his whole life and because of that became a very fast runner--though we find out in much later volumes that he was taught proper running technique early on in life, to make things somewhat plausible. He gets roped into the football team at Deimon High by the demon-like quarterback Hiruma and the gentle giant lineman Kurita. But his friend, Mamori, is very protective of Sena, having shielded him from bullies in elementary and middle school. She would never approve of Sena playing such a dangerous sport, so he poses as manager and hides his identity on the field under a tinted eyeshield. His jersey is #21, and there you have the name, Eyshield 21. This name creates interesting problems later in the series.

I love football. And now I love football that much more because of this manga. There's nothing like a themed team to make you understand a certain play--such as the Posidens and their tidal wave defense--a 3-4 defense set to block passes because of all the defensive backs. Never were tacky fighting names more appropriate in a shonen than in this series, with teams such as the Knights, Wild Gunmen, Scorpions, aforementioned Posidens, Titans, Sphinxes, Chameleons, Wolves, Dinosaurs, Spiders, and of course, our very own Deimon Devil Bats, all with their own unique and recognizable character designs.

There's 37 volumes overall, with 26 or 27 published in the US so far. Over time, the Devil Bats assemble a full team--albeit one that is forced to play both offense and defense. They claw their way to the top, traditional underdog-shonen style. But even though you know they're teammates to the title character, and therefore are going to win, you can't help but read anyway. Whether you know how to play football or not, you'll understand the series. It starts with the basics, touchdowns and running, and gradually eases readers into more complicated rules, passing, field goals, various formations and positions, until you find you know all the rules of football! (except penalties--these seem to not exist in Japanese football, because no one ever gets them. XD) The depictions of Sena's running are some of my favorite illustrations in a sports manga ever. Though, again, I have little sports manga experience. ^^; And it's not that the illustrations are all that impressive, I just like the way it's done. It's a fine example of how graphic novels differ from other mediums.

They even manage to work in girls who don't exist just for fanservice! Mamori and, after the America training arc, Suzuna are pretty much the only girls, but in a series about football, that's not surprising. They provide a little bit of romance, but mostly are just integral parts of the plot. In fact, there is NO fanservice in this series! In general, it's pretty young teen-friendly, with the worst anything being Hiruma saying "damn" in front of everything.

Positives: it's a real fun series with memorable characters, good character design, good execution of the standard underdog-fights-his-way-to-the-top, don't need to know football to read it.
Negatives: Underdog-fights-his-way-to-the-top, so it's predictable. If you don't like football, you're out of luck, because that's everything. Yeah, there's cool character development within every football game, but that's just it, they only develop during games.

Overall, I love the series to death. I re-read it all the time. I like football, too, so I suppose I'm biased. I give it a B+. It's tons of fun, and the best football series you'll ever read, but not all that groundbreaking otherwise. It's definitely worth checking out, though.

Opinion: Anime #35--Addressing the FUNimation Leaks

There's been a big to-do in the anime community recently about FUNimation's One Piece and Phantom streams downloaded and leaked before their Japanese airdates. Also, their FMA: Brotherhood stream which was leaked before its intended airdate but at least after its Japanese airdate. Because I am now done with classes, I now have the time to not only read these articles on ANN, but explore the forums. I need to learn to not do that. Exploring ANN forums only makes me hate the anime community. There are two basic views on this issue, those who think that FUNi's been wronged, and those who think that FUNi got what they deserved.

The majority of people blame FUNi completely and insult people in very condescending terms when they say otherwise. Someone stole these episodes and illegally redistributed them. Shouldn't we blame them? Yeah, FUNi's security was nonexistent, but they actually care about their fans. They get us boxsets and put extras on their DVDs and offer the option of translated and non-translated theme songs and ARE TRYING TO GET US THE SIMLUCASTS WE'VE BEEN WHINING FOR. So this person/persons thank FUNi by bitorrenting the episodes before they come out in Japan?! HECK YES IT'S THEIR FAULT. FUNi needs to improve security, yes, but that's no excuse for stealing their stuff. Just because it's easier to steal doesn't make it less wrong.

The last time I was on the ANN forums was when the Sakuracon commercial aired. The silly commerical that didn't do any real harm, but then I got on the ANN forums. So all you otaku out there, I caution you if you visit the ANN forums. People there tend to think too much of themselves and be very insulting if you don't agree with them. I can't stand it.

You can have your own opinion, and I don't care what it is. But I blame whoever redistributed the episodes. All the people who defy the industry just because they like their fansubs--guess what? Without the industry, THERE IS NO ANIME IN NORTH AMERICA. You have no conventions, no merchandise, no English-dubbed anime. Maybe you don't care, but the majority of us do. Stop being jerks and follow the legal process.

Anime #34--Internet

Two posts ago was my Sociology Project. Part of that project was to compare my chosen subculture to another subculture. One of the subcultures that the anime fandom is closely related to is the internet. We watch anime on the internet. We read manga on the internet. We get news, we talk with each other, we post fanart/fiction/videos on the internet. Since we spend so much time on the internet, parts of internet culture get integrated into our own. What parts of internet culture? I'm glad you asked...

Language! From FTW to ROFL and everything in-between, anime fans are well-versed in internet lingo.

Etiquette: No flaming. No double-posting. Preferably stay on-topic.

Memes: Rickroll, Caramelldansen, Loituma, Star Wars Kid, Angry German Kid, Numa Numa, and so many, many more.

That's basically all I have to say. It's a simple and obvious overlap of cultures, but one that you may not think about. As an anime fan, odds are, you are also part of a subculture of people who use the internet a lot. For more fun internet memes, browse wikipedia's list of internet phenomenon and their definition of an internet meme.

Reviews #10--The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

I haven't seen anything new in ages--mostly I've been catching up on The Office from the EIGHT WEEKS that I missed it--and so will be reviewing a movie I saw a few months ago.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is loosely based on a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Instead of being a straight adaptation, it's more like a sequel. The author is very happy with the film version, so in that respect, it is a success. It didn't make a whole lot of money, but it wasn't released many places, either, and was overshadowed by more advertised films like Goro Miyazaki's (not to be confused with his father, Hayao) Tales from Earthsea film.

The titular girl, Makoto, discovers her power when she avoids a train accident. She can "leap" through time when she, literally, leaps and wants or needs to time-leap. She uses her powers at first for things like getting a good test grade and reliving karaoke. Her best friend, Chiaki, tries to confess his love, but she time-leaps to avoid it. Her other friend, Kosuke, has his own love troubles with another girl in the class, and Makoto tries to help them. Though all this, she seeks the advice of her aunt, implied to be the protagonist of the original novel.

It's got romance, comedy, high school, and some science-fiction. The animation is very good, and the dub voice acting isn't too bad. I didn't watch it subbed, sad to say, so I can't comment on the original actors. I spent the entire movie wondering where I knew Andrew Francis, who voices Chiaki. He does some other voice-acting work, including Megaman from the old series than ran on KidsWB way back when. Emily Hirst (Makoto) and Alex Zahara (Kosuke), I've never heard before, but all the actors were well-suited for their roles.

I don't usually watch anime movies that aren't based on a series or come out of Studio Ghibli. Watching this movie was a good way to break that habit, and I will probably watch more movies now because of it.

Reasons for: Nice animation, interesting story, cute romance, good direction.
Reasons against: Is slow at times, slightly confusing, romance may not be your thing.
Overall Rating: A

Anime #33--Tekko VII Con Report

Ah, Tekko VII. My fourth Tekko. It was a very nice year, with a wonderful new venue, lots of guests, and fun to be had all around. Just about everything this year was better than last year except for the walk from the hotel to the convention center, but that was so incredibly better than cramming the con into a hotel, that it's not worth complaining about. Here's a much briefer con report than the gigantic thing I put on my LJ.

FRIDAY
Got to the convention center around 4:30, before any of my friends from school. I registered and hung out with my Tekko!friends I met two years ago. For the first time, I went to AMVs! After, I met up with my school!friends, who all went to put their stuff in the room. My stuff was in Tekko!friends room, so I stayed with them and we took fun group pictures. I hung out with them for most of the evening, just taking pictures and talking, as I preferred that to seeing Uncle Yo again. I took pictures of some great costumes, and had some great pictures taken of my and my friends. My favorite costume group on Friday was a WALL-E GROUP. A REALLY DETAILED WALL-E GROUP. :D MO had a mop, EVE had a gun, WALL-E had a cooler, AND they had almost all the props from the scene in the truck! Props!! Plus, I knew them from Tekko 1/2 two years ago when I went by myself and they hung out with me for a bit. Hence why I was so happy. Took lots and lots of pictures of them and fangirled about as much as one can fangirl about a silent robot romance.
The rest of the night was talking with friends and eating pizza. Boring stuff to you all reading this.

SATURDAY
This was the day I debuted the ARMOR. Well. It was a mess. But if I had just painted it a little better, I think I would have been happy with it. I'll fix it up for a future con.
This was also the morning of my first panel. I had a little trouble setting up, and so did not have time to play all my AMVs like I had wanted. Also, my computer wouldn't recognize the projector as a second monitor for some reason, and I had to go without my notes! So I glossed over a lot of stuff because I didn't have the details in front of me. Which was good, since I finished in time. It went pretty well, and people answered most of the questions about the manga and anime. It was things like pairings and voice actors that stumped folks. (Marc Thompson was the other 4-person voice actor! Duke, Jean-Claude Magnum, Rafael, and Valon) Laj and Celinra helped out with that Yami Bakura/Zorc/Thief Bakura triangle that the guy from last year confused me on. Bakura is Thief reincarnated. Yami Bakura is Zorc. That's it. (right?) I had a bigger turnout than last year (bigger room, likely) and it seemed like everyone was entertained. ^^;; I want to keep doing Yuugiou themed panels now that it seems like I'm destined to be Jou every year, so I'm thinking a manga/anime comparison next year.
The panel ended after I briefly covered abridged quotes, which were all correctly identified. A couple of guys came up afterwards, and I spazzed when one introduced himself as Kroze. Kroze, the Yugioh Abridged site creator, at my panel! He told me to spread the news about his Abridged screening in the video room, and his dealers room booth. I, in turn, asked him about episode 38, and told him that I was "the fangirl that kept posting on LK's livejournal". To which he responded "oh, that was YOU!". ^__^;; So now I'm rather hoping he'll tell LK that I'm that particular fangirl, and then LK will know who I am! :D After that, I headed towards the hotel to meet up with Yugi and the rest of the Os.
I went back to my room to change, and my day as a member of the band began! I joined up with the band, now in J-Rock costume, and we got Deathcom pictures. They're amazing. Go check the site. We had to cut it short to go to Masquerade rehearsal, though. We signed up, got info, and set up in the hallway. We had decided beforehand we were going to "perform" a few songs in the afternoon while in costume. We drew quite a crowd, and it was a lot of fun. XD
I got lunch and had just enough time to stop in my hotel room (with school!friends) before having to go to the actual Masquerade. Our skit is up on youtube if interested.
After Maquerade, I finally made it to Artist's Alley, got myself some stuff. Stayed in J-Rock outfit and took some pictures with my aforementioned Tekko!friends. Changed back into my other costume, then took Deathcom pictures with them. Most of the con was changing and taking pictures. Sat in on the last 15 minutes of the industry panel with Greg Ayres, Stephanie Sheh, and others. Got Stephanie's autograph, but Greg had to leave because he's still not feeling well after his heart problems.
Got some dinner, went to the Yugioh Abridged panel. I wound up not going to the rave at all, just staying at Abridged because Kroze was giving out prizes, and I really wanted a t-shirt. It took me until the very last question to finally know an answer! But at last, X GON GIVE IT TO YOU, BY DMX! With that, I won myself a Catapult Turtle shirt! I had Kroze sign in the next day.

SUNDAY

Donned the Armor once again to take Deathcom pictures. The wings were horrible. After, went to the scarce Dealer's Room, found nothing I wanted, and went to Artist's Alley. Then, it was time for my panel! It went well. I covered everything I wanted to, my friends liked it, Kroze came, and I even got some positive feedback on the Tekko forums:

"4Kids Sub vs. Dub panel was pretty well researched. I found out some edits to One Piece and Yu-Gi-Oh that I didn't even know happened. Those sneaky 4Kids people. I hope the woman who did this panel does it again next year."

Thanks! I will! (and she knew I was a WOMAN. Even with my raspy I-just-got-over-a-sore-throat voice and Jou costume! XD There was a lot of confusion over that last year.)
Went back to Artists Alley with ALL my friends and Kroze. I think there were 12 of us. XD;; Pikced up the art I had commisioned Saturday night. It's SO CUTE. 8D After, all my school friends left, leaving me, Tekko!friends, and Kroze. We talked, and eventually all left. On my way out, I walked past none other than GREG AYRES. I met Mr. Ayres last year and three years ago at Tekkoshocon, but last year when I took a picture with him, it didn't develop. I deliberated and finally asked him a picture, which he gladly agreed to take. So now I have a picture with Greg Ayres! That officially ended the con for me. So long, Tekko VII. Can't wait for next year.

Anime #32--Sociology Project

I'm doing a report on the anime fan subculture for sociology class, and needed a website with a number of specific hyperlinks. Rather than try to find a website that magically had everything we needed, my partner and I decided to just use my blogger and make a blog entry. I get to use this as an excuse for an update, and you get some anime-related websites.



News:
Anime News Network






Forums:
Anime forums








































Fan Works



DeviantArt









Fanfiction.net









Anime Music Videos









Watch/Read


Youtube








OneManga









onemanga.com



Now, onto the next part of the presentation, CLUBS!

Opinion: Anime #31--Otaku Identity

Being American and being a fan of Japanese animation has always been an interesting position. The animation is from a different culture, and those things from other cultures can appeal to us, who do not live in that culture. I believe every otaku has gone though a "Japanphile" phase. You buy a yukata, you pretend to celebrate a Japanese holiday, you eat sushi, you employ phrases picked up from watching things subbed, etc. When the interest in Japanese culture reaches the "everthing about Japan is amazing and Japan can do no wrong" phase, it has gone too far.
I think that part of it is a sort of rite of passage. If you know more about Japan than someone else, you're a better otaku. Makes sense, right? Until you start objectifying Japanese people's culture as a state in life that can be obtained by eating enough soba, watching enough fansubs, and calling everything you see "kawaii". For most, it's a stage of being a fan, and doesn't get to that nasty objectifying place. I certainly went through the "learn Japanese and spout words picked up from subs" phase. When it persists, that's not so good.
That isn't to say that wanting to know more about Japan is a bad thing. I have a sincere desire to learn Japanese now. I did a 40-minute long presentation on the history of anime and its cultural significance in Japan last year for World Literature. I'm interested in Japanese literature. I like knowing those little cultural things in series that Americans don't usually know. (example: just yesterday in Ouran High School Host Club, there was a scene where a character saw a tea stalk sticking up in his tea. In Japan, that's a sign of good luck.)

This was spawned by a commericial for Sakura-Con.


The commercial has sparked some heated debates between otaku, though most of it was two months ago when the commercial actually AIRED. ^_^;; But I was so sick of the debate, I never wanted to post it. I saw it in my unposted posts today, and felt I needed to address the topic. Rewatching the video, I don't think it's THAT bad. They were going for something like "we all like different aspects of anime culture! sakura-con has ALL those things! isn't that cool?" but came off more like "WE'RE OBSESSED JAPANAPHILES WHOO SAKURA-CON". Anime fans took offense. But it's over now, and not that big a deal anymore.

In summary, liking Japan = good. Japanaphile, Japan can do NO WRONG, Japan is better than everything else, spouting off random Japanese words means you can speak Japanese = BAD.

Anime #30--There She Is!!

No, it's not actually anime. But I've wanted to talk about it since February, only I didn't know if I should continue the blog when Ing moved to Shaler. It'll just be a Shaler AND Bethel Park blog now. ^^;;
"There She Is!!" is a flash video series by the Korean animating group SamBakZa. The first video, titled simply "There She Is!!", featuring the song "There She Is!!" by Witches, was released April 2003. It became popular in English speaking countries the following year when a version with English titles was released. The characters don't actually speak, so the videos can appeal to viewers from all around the world, though the songs that score the videos are in Korean. In a world of cats and rabbits, a female rabbit falls in love with a male cat. There are a few problems, though. The male cat isn't interested, and cat/rabbit relationships are prohibited. It's hilarious, cute, and amazingly animated.

Step 2, "Cake Dance" was released February 2005, and features the song "Happy Birthday to Me" by Bulldog Mansion. This is the only one of the songs from the videos that can be purchased on iTunes, which I have done. ^^;; I believe that more than one video was not originally intended, but because of the large amount of positive feedback, SamBakZa obliged with a second video. It's the rabbit's birthday, and the cat gets her a cake. The video follows his trip back with the cake, and the trouble he goes through to get it to the party safely. The "Jjinta set" or "moron set" is introduced in this step: they are a group of funny gangster rabbits who don't get along with the cat.

There are three more steps, which went into production after SamBakZa received funding from Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency (GDCA). However, because of that, they now have a hard time getting DVD and merchandise rights. I'm okay with that, though, because I love steps 3-5. Step three, "Doki and Nabi", features the song "3차성징" (Sam-cha Seong-jing, translating to "tertiary sex characteristic") by T.A.COPY. The character names are finally revealed! Doki is the rabbit, and Nabi is the cat. They go on their first date, in a world that is still against cat/rabbit relationships.

Step 4 - Paradise, was released August 20, 2008 and features the song "Wolsik" by Tabu. This is the darkest of the five videos. The world's anti cat/rabbit view makes things difficult for the dating Doki and Nabi. Conflict starts to build as groups of animals protest for the right to have inter-species relationships. One of the Jjinta set, Yi-ho (the eyepatch one) is among those protesters. Doki and Nabi's relationship reaches its dark moment, and all fans wait anxiously for step 5.

The final step certainly delivers. Featuring the song "Imagine" by Brunch (which is a direct response to John Lennon's "Imagine"), step 5 is easily my favorite of the series. It debuted just recently in December 2008. The ending is amazing. The song is amazing. I love everything about this video. Heck, I even transcribed the song, as chords/tabs/music/ANYTHING are nowhere to be found on the internet. Nabi finally proves his love, and we get everything from car chases, fights, those animals from steps 2-4, Doki's daydreams from step 1 (see left), and help from all characters seen in the series. (Jjinta set, Grey Rabbit, Hana, Pizza, and all the protesters) I couldn't imagine a better ending. XD (Ha ha... ha... okay, not funny.)

To view the videos, you'll have to go to the SamBakZa website, click "English", click "amalloc" and then pick your episodes. You can go to youtube or the like, but the quality is MUCH better on the actual website. (and you can download the flash to your computer, get a flash-to-video converter, and put it on your portable video player! ...like me... ^^;;)

It's not remotely close to anime, but it's animated in manwha style, which is Korean comic books/graphic novels/manga, which is related to anime by being related to manga. So... it kind of fits. But it's just a great set of videos that I recommend to everyone. (I am NOT going to comment on whatever kind of message the animators intend. I like the love story, I love the music, and I love the animation. I think it's supposed to make a statement about interracial marriage, but just in case it's something else, I am not endorsing anything.)

Reviews #9--Ouran High School Host Club

Ouran High School Host Club, known also as Ouran, is a very amusing take on the shojo genre. Haruhi Fujioka is a student at Ouran Academy, a very elite private school. One day, Haruhi stumbles into an "abandoned" music room and finds the Host Club. While trying to leave, Haruhi destroys a very expensive vase and is eight hundred million yen in the club's debt. The boys of the club force Haruhi to work for them to pay of the debt.
What the host club does is cater to the women of the school--basically, they're male geishas without physical contact. They have tea, they throw parties, they give flowers, flatter, woo, and otherwise entertain the ladies with their different male charms. Tamaki Suoh, the leader, is the "prince". Kyoya Ootori is the cool mastermind, the one actually in charge. Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin are twins, andthe "little devil" type. Mitsukuni Haninozuka is the "lolita-shota" type, appears to be an elementary schooler, loves sweets, and is the national judo champion. O_o; Takashi Morinozuka is his cousin, the "wild" type according to wikipedia, but more like the strong silent type. He's at Huni-senpai's side at all times, and talks very little.

Tamaki discovers that Haruhi is a natural at entertaining ladies, and promotes Haruhi to host. At the end of the day, Tamaki discovers that Haruhi, who he just employed as a male host, is in fact a girl. Haruhi cares little for appearances, and had no money for a girls' uniform, and didn't mind being mistaken for a boy, so she went along with it. The club decides that she's so good at being a host, the "natural" type, they'll hide her gender from the school and continue the masquerade.

This is normally the exact opposite of the type of series I would like. It's shojo to the extreme, actually parodying many common themes in shojo series. But while being extreme, each of the boys are actually very honorable and chivalrous, none more so than Tamaki. So I love it. It's hilarious, and makes fun of all the things I dislike about shojo series. It's got a likable strong heroine, and a chivalrous love interest. What more could I ask for? Well, and I can't believe no one thought of this, there's no "comedian" type. But other than that, it's great!

The dub is very well done, also. Vic Mignogna steals the show as Tamaki. He entertains me to no end, especially when I watch Ouran immediately after watching episodes 47 and 48 of Fullmetal Alchemist. (which, as any FMA fan knows, are late in the series and therefore very sad) Caitlin's no slouch, either, yelling at the twins, and dealing with all-around craziness. Travis Willingham plays Mori-senpai, and Aaron Dismuke rounds out the old FMA cast with a small role as Huni-senapi's younger brother. I love Greg Ayres in general, but the twins are to die for, and Huni is Huni. I haven't heard a character I don't like yet, and I think Caitlin is going an excellent job directing. The only thing I dislike are the theme songs. The English singers just don't sound as good as the original Japanese. The lyrics are awkward at times, and the singing itself isn't as good. However, I DO like FUNi's apparent new policy of translating the theme songs into English. If you don't like it, switch to the Japanese audio track. But if you do like it, you've got it made. It shows that FUNi is actually trying, and as a fan, I appreciate that.

Granted, Ouran IS a shojo. It's silly. There's a wide range of people who don't particularly like it. I've read about 4 volumes of the manga, and I enjoy the anime much more because of the hilarious voices. It's not a great work of literature or anything, but it's entertaining, and it doesn't take itself seriously when it does its gags. On the whole, a very fun series, that I would recommend to anyone looking for something peppy. Also very good when you've got a group of friends over.

Overall: A- for entertainment value.

Anime #29--Not Quite "Anime"

Anime has had such a big influence on the west in the past twenty years or so, and consequently, we have incorporated these influences into our own pop culture.

The first example that comes to my mind is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar is the famous Nick series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko which just aired its series finale on July 19th. I am slightly ashamed to say that I watched most of the series online first, then got the DVDs from the library. ^_^;; I couldn't wait. I wanted to know which pairings won out in the end. And I'm very happy to say that the pairings I liked were the triumphant ones, ESPECIALLY the Katara pairing. (Kataang vs. Zutara--one of the scariest pairing battles I've ever seen)
Mike and Bryan often cite Miyazaki-sensei as one of the inspirations for Avatar.

The best anime balances great action sequences with humor and emotion, something we try to do on Avatar. We love all the films of Hayao Miyazaki, especially Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Both movies deal with spirituality and the environment in an entertaining way. Also, there's a lot of great animation."[1]

It's also been confirmed that Appa's design is based on the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro. Of course, Disney, Pixar, and hopefully any animation studio in the world also lists Miyazaki-sensei as an influence.

Original English-language manga or OEL is more common than animated shows. To quote wikipedia, my favorite non-school research source:

Original English-language manga or OEL manga is the term commonly used to describe comic books or graphic novels in the "international manga" genre of comics whose language of original publication is English.^[1] The term international manga, as used by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, encompasses all foreign comics which draw inspiration from the unique "form of presentation and expression" found in Japanese manga.[2]

I personally don't have much experience with English mangas. The only ones I can think of offhand that I've read are Dramacon and RE:play. RE:play is the better of the two, though Dramacon is a fan favorite because it depicts conventions accurately and, ::gasp:: has a (semi) attractive GUY. ZOMG ROMANCE LET'S ALL READ IT. ::fangirl spazz:: -_-;; I dislike the main characters of that series, so the only merit of it is the subject matter.
Replay centers on a band and... also a mysterious good looking guy. But the lead female character (who is actually the main character, not the guy) is much less annoying than whatsherface from Dramacon, so I like it better.
Two titles is hardly a representation, though. OEL titles are not bound by genre, same as manga. OELs, however, are NOT American comic books. They are specifically stylized like Japanese comics, but made in America. Marvel, DC, and the like do not fall under the OEL category. Those are just... I dunno, comic books? I'm not much of a comic book reader, sad to say.
OEL are also very commonly published online. Again, I have little knowledge of this, as I've never actually read an OEL webcomic. (I did, for a few months, follow 8-Bit Theater, but stopped because I used to have dial up and it took too long to load) They're out there though, and can probably be found without too much trouble. I know at artist alleys, many artists sell comics, but also hand out advertisements for their webcomics. (which may or may not be the same series they are selling)

Reviews #8--Eureka Seven

With the exception of .hack//sign, this is the third mecha series out of the last 4 reviews I've done. Unlike Code Geass, though, Eureka Seven is very specifically a mecha series. A friend of mine got me into this series two years ago, but I'm still only on episode 18 because I don't watch episodes online. The library only owns up to volume 4, but I'm working to fix that.

The protagonist of Eureka Seven is a young teenage boy named Renton Thurston (like Lelouch, and half the male protagonists in the dubbed anime world, voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch). Renton's father is the "hero", Adroc Thurston who somehow saved the world and discovered lots of things about LFOs, trapar, and the first summer of love. Because of my long break from the series and the differences between the anime and manga, I have no idea what exactly about those things he discovered.
I CAN however tell you that "trapar" is "transparent light" and is a kind of invisible "wave" that can be ridden with a lift-board--basically, you surf in the sky. An LFO is a "Light Finding Operation, a mecha that can lift board, and yes, the pop-culture reference is intentional, especially when the military LFOs are called KLFs, and there's no point in finding out what the acronym is because it's a British band and that's all you really need to know. The show is ridden with pop-culture references, everything from the episode titles all being based on real songs, to the characters "Jobs" and "Woz" (Apple founders), to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water in episode 16. No, I'm not kidding.

Anyway, Renton's father did some amazing stuff, but died. Renton is a loner, though everyone gives him attention because of his father. He's a great mechanic thanks to his grandfather, Axel Thurston, and loves to lift. (the act of lift boarding) One day, a girl in an LFO crashes into his house. That girl is the title character, Eureka, whose past, identity, and everything in general is nothing but a big mass of spoilers. I read the manga, so I get it (at least somewhat) but the anime doesn't reveal most of it until the 20s.

The series is animated by some of the folks who did Cowboy Bebop, and the studio that did Fullmetal Alchemist. The animation is spot-on, with everything from emotional scenes between Eureka and Renton to spectacular LFO board-riding fight scenes. The English voice acting is great, with such actors as Johnny Bosch, Crispin Freeman, Stephanie Sheh, and down there with a somewhat minor character, Megan Hollingshed. I have no problems with any of the acting, now that I've gotten into this trend of watching the English dub instead of the Japanese. I just figure if Bandai took the time to dub it, I ought to take the time to watch it. In fact, all of the last four titles I've reviewed were released by Bandai. What happened to my "FUNimation is the king of dubbing!" standpoint?

Overall, an exciting, yet emotional title. It's got all the stuff you'd expect with mecha anime, which Code Geass is significantly lacking. (emotional bonding with the mecha and so forth) There's a great story, though it takes a while to get through it. I'm itching for the rest of Holland's past, but so far, they have not obliged. Eureka alone is complicated enough for the relationship, but there's at least 4 on the ship, though only two ever get much development. Not to mention the other characters with the military, who really complicate things.
Great show! Though perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I give it an A.
As always, it was featured on Adult Swim, so 13+. It's not particuarly graphic or explicit (so far), but just to get your head around the emotional stuff, you ought to be 13.

Reviews #7--Gurren Lagann

Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann, ("Heaven Shattering Crimson Face") brought to America as just Gurren Lagann, is yet another mecha series I've taken an interest in. A friend of mine lent me the first two DVDs, and so you get to hear about them.
Just for the novelty of it, I'd love to see a shojo mecha series. Mecha in itself, is a shonen genre, but I really would love to see the differences if they aimed it at girls. Being a shonen, we've got all the shonen plot points: overconfident male fighting-type, shy with some sort of hidden inner talent/magic/drill/whatever not-normally-a-fighter type, busty girl with some sembalnce of a purpose to thinly veil the fanservice, and STUFF BLOWING UP. Though more general fights than explosions.
Gurren Lagann takes place on an unknown planet which may or may not be post-apocalyptic Earth. People live underground, and except for Kamina, deny the existence of a surface. Our main character is 14-year-old Simon, a shy scrawny kid who's really good with a drill. The people drill out to expand their village, since they can't go up. One day while drilling, Simon find a tiny drill. No, I'm not joking. He shows it to Kamina, 18-something cocky punk who wants to break out of the village. Immediately afterwards, he pulls Simon into his "Team Gurren" and uses a herd of some sort of weird animal to break out. He fails, Simon goes back to drilling, and this time finds a "face". 'Tis a mecha, which they are forced to use when a "Gunman" falls though their ceiling being chased by aforemnetioned busty girl. Her name is Yoko, and she's a killer shot with a rifle. After killing the Gunman with the mecha--named Lagann by Kamina, Simon, Kamina, and Yoko bust through to the surface.

Reasons for: It's a fun show, and you can't help but be pulled in by that. Kamina's definitions of manhood make you want to learn to fight just so you can apply them. The mecha piloting is plausible, with neither Simon nor Kamina being especially good when they start, and only winning through the immense powers of the Gurren and Lagann, and eventually, the Gurren Lagann. Yoko really DOES have a purpose, unlike other fanservice characters I've reviewed lately (coughKarenCodeGeasscough) and she's good with that rifle. The general plotline is tried-and-true, but the idea of a planet populated by beastmen that force people to live below the surface is intriging, and keeps you watching.
Very nice opening and ending, as well. First time in a while that I've liked the ending theme song of a show.

Reasons against: KAMINA, SHUT UP. I don't know if I love him or hate him. People get annoyed by Naruto's overconfidence, fighting abilities that he didn't earn, and general attitude in general, and Kamina's much the same. He doesn't have the slightest clue what he's doing, but he just charges blindly forward and pulls through in the end. Some of the "manly" things he does are just ridiculous. When he forces Simon to jump on top of his mecha instead of just picking him up, for example--long minutes of a battle are spent on Kamina smacking the Lagann away instead of letting it combine. Really, Kamina, how far did you need to take that? He's the heart of the show so far, now will he carry it or kill it? I'm sorry, but I want to see more of Simon, the ACTUAL MAIN CHARACTER, and not Simon whining "I'm afraid, let's go home!". What home? Am I the only one who saw the Gunman destroy it?!
For the first time since Yuugiou, I've got animation to complain about. Is it just me, or was the animation different in episode 4? That's not cool, Gainax. Transfer some of the budget on making Yoko as suggestive as possible and get some consistency.

Overall: I like it, but I just don't see what makes it SO great. B+ so far, but because I've read and know what's going to happen, A-.

Reviews #6 - .hack//sign

Every otaku has that first series that they look back on fondly, silently thanking the creator for making such a wonderful show that turned them onto the world of anime. If you haven't figured it out by now, mine's Yuugiou, created by Kazuki Takahashi. Why, then, do I bring the subject up at all for a review of .hack? It's a interesting situation I have with .hack//sign. (pronounced "dot hack sign") If personal anecdotes aren't your style, skip ahead to the review below.

BORING STORY
About 5, maybe 6 years ago, I turned 12 or 13. For my birthday I got this awesome necklace with a stone bear. (hence my thing for polar bears now) I wore this thing all the time, including to a Duquesne basketball game that my father dragged me to. Somewhere along the way, the necklace fell off, and I lost it forever. That fateful necklace-losing day, before the game started, we decided to roam the Student Union. (more like my dad decided and I blindly followed and possibly complained) There was a TV on somewhere in the union, and being a bored tween and an American, I of course paused to watch it. There was a guy with white hair, red markings on his face, and eyes that bespoke of horrors and pain. This guy, whoever he was, had some sort of horrible angsty backstory, and I had no idea what it was. I also remember him smiling despite the eyes-of-angst, but I think that's imagined. We left and came through the same place again, and there were a group of oddly dressed people, including said white-hair-red-marked-angsty man, and the best I recall it was dark, and rocky.
White-hair-red-marked-angsty man was on my mind for the rest of the day. Who was he? What show was that? Why was he so angsty? It nagged at me for a while, and then I forgot about it.
For some reason, about a year later, I decided to go back and look up just what it was I had seen. After searching old tv schedules online, I narrowed it to a few titles, among them .hack//sign.
After 6 years of buildup, I have finally seen .hack//sign. I realize now that if I had gone on any anime forum anywhere and asked about "really angst-filled white-haired red-markings-under-eyes guy?" I would've gotten an answer of ".hack//sign".

REVIEW
It's an interesting experience to know and be somewhat in awe of an anime for this long, and yet at the same time, not know a thing about it. I've never seen much discussion about .hack//sign, nor have I read reviews. I had absolutely no idea how good it was, or what it was about.
.hack//sign is part of the extremely complicated .hack franchise. If you want the entire story you have to watch the anime, play all the video games, and read the light novels. Or, you could just watch this anime, because you certainly don't need any prior knowledge to watch it.

.hack//sign is almost entirely set in an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) called "The World". Our main character is an angsty-looking tween-to-teen male Wavemaster (magic user, spellcaster, magician--take your pick) named Tsukasa. The first episode starts with Tsukasa waking up in a dungeon, not knowing how he got there or what happened to him before. Mimiru, a female teenage Heavy Blade comes across him, introduces herself, and asks him if he's okay because he looks SO angsty. Everything about Tsukasa screams emo backstory, right down the oh-so-subtle marks on his cheeks. ANGST, ANGST, ANGST. And yet, while the main character is screaming angst, it's in a very tolerable and somewhat likable way. It's not like, say, Lelouch and his "my mother is dead, my sister is blind, RAWR" kind of way, it's a "everyone hated me so I hate them but I'm really a scared little boy (girl?) deep down". Tsukasa's backstory is actually not something I've ever seen before, and I have to say a little creepy.

Back to the story. Mimiru wonders about the angsty Wavemaster, and happens to run across him again. She tries to be friends, but Tsukasa in his anti-social-yet-likableness, leaves. We eventually meet Mimiru's friend, Bear, a middle-aged male heavy blade; Bear's friend BT, a 20-30something female Wavemaster; Subaru, a I-swear-she-was-an-elementary-schooler-but-is-apparently-the-same-age-as-Tsukasa female... uh... Axe; Also, Silver Knight, her 23-year old sword-wielding protector; Crim, a 20-30something Long Arm (spear); and Sora, a male Twin Blade whose age isn't revealed until the last episode.
For a 25-28 episode series (depending on how you count the OVAs) the pacing is incredibly slow. All the plot revelations could easily be made in 13 episodes. But they take their time to flesh out the characters and give various red herrings and misleading relationships. For example, Tsukasa/Mimiru, the pairing you would most naturally expect... that gets very complicated, indeed, and by episode 10, you think it's not how you thought it would go down in episode 1, and by 25, you're wondering how you ever thought that in the first place. I give the series due credit for not falling into any stereotypical relationship traps, especially with BT, (BT and Bear, BT and Sora, BT and Crim) and with Bear.
If you don't like watching a slow-moving character-driven series, run away. Run far, far away. If you're willing to put up with complicated relationships and NOT KNOWING WHAT IS GOING ON even at the end of the series, sit down and grab some popcorn. There's almost 12 hours of character-y goodness in store for you. (and some nice ideas for cosplayers) It's not your typical anime, that's for sure. Where Code Geass could fit every mold in the book, .hack fits almost none of them. Surprisingly, it was Mimiru who won the battle for my favorite character, not Crim, Bear, Sora, or BT, like I'd expect. There was just something about the very complicated relationship that she had with Tsukasa that I liked. BT would've been my first guess for likable, but even that character type can't always do it for me. Maybe I needed some I-never-had-friends-before-I-met-you-guys kind of thing.

Tsukasa, while not my overall favorite, certainly has his moments. Oh, also, Macha! How can I forget everyone's favorite mysterious cat? There's a cat-player that's around when the trouble starts and is somehow connected. How, you will have to wait until the third-to-last-episode or soemthing ridiculous like that to find out.
In summary, good series, strays off the well-beaten paths of "high school drama", "believe in yourself", "friendship conquers all", "willpower and inner talent beat all competition" and just about anything that would stick it in a genre. There is also a significant lack of inappropriate violence, language, sexual themes, or anything at all. Save for... erm... that one relationship, but I can't really say it's inappropriate, just... mature. I will never recommend this anime series for anyone below 13, and I'd really say 14 or 15 to make sure you'll get everything, but it's not going to scar you for life if you DO watch it.

Rating: A
-Breaks new ground, excellent character development, good story, good animation
-Pacing can be a little slow at times, and confusion about storyline--what just happened? How do things END? Enough gets explained that you can watch it without going totally crazy, but the rest of the loose ends will nag at you for a while.

Anime #28 - Pixar?

Happy Thanksgiving, all! Despite having a massive amount of words left to write for NaNoWriMo, I am finally updating this blog! Yay! ^__^

Today's topic is actually NOT anime. I recently rented WALL-E, which I watched for the second and third times. (only managed to catch it once in theaters because of my trip to Australia) I love all the Pixar movies, some (coughToyStorycough) more than others (coughCarscough). It has been said that Pixar is the closest American equivalent to Studio Ghibli, and I agree with that. What with Disney trying to get WALL-E a Best Picture nomination (not just best animated, Best Picture. As in that thing that went to No Country for Old Men, The Departed, Crash, Million Dollar Baby, LOTR, Chicago, A Beautiful Mind, and only has had one animated nonimee EVER) I thought it was a good time to discuss them. Personally, I think if Beauty and the Beast could get the nomination in '91, and Juno could get the nomination last year, I don't see why WALL-E can't. But that's me being horribly biased to a romance sci-fi Pixar animated silent film directed by the guy that did Finding Nemo with sound design by the guy that did sound design for the original Star Wars.

Anyway, along with being compared to Ghibli, Pixar's head honcho, John Lasseter, is good friends with Hayao Miyazaki-sensei. Lasseter oversees the dubs for every one of the Ghibli films that Disney releases. Ghibli did a short titled "Thank you, Mr. Lasster", but unfortunately I ave no idea what it's about. Both companies are related and make amazing films, so to broaden your knowledge of good animation, here's a brief rundown of Pixar.

Wikipedia Pixar Article

Pixar started off as The Graphics Group, a branch of Lucasfilm that worked with ILM to make special effects for films. Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, bought the company from Lucas and gave it the title we know now, Pixar. They then were primarily a hardware company, selling computers to the military and medical institutions. Disney became a regular patron of theirs, purchasing computers to make the animation process more efficient. To try to sell more computers, John Lasseter entered shorts the company had done at SIGGRAPH, a computer graphics convention. Pixar brought the house down at SIGGRAPH. After that, they started to animate commercials for things like Lifesavers and Listerine. Disney wound up signing a three-picture deal with them, which gave us Toy Story and A Bug's Life.

With Toy Story 2, however, a disagreement arose. Pixar had upgraded the film to a theatrical release, but it had been planned as a direct-to-video, so Disney didn't want to count it as part fo the three-picture deal. Pixar wasn't happy about that, nor were they happy about the fact that their current arrangement gave Disney the full story and sequel rights to their films. Pixar produced, but Disney marketed and distributed. Pixar tried to get them down to only distribution, which would give them their own story rights, AND they wanted the rights to the films that they had already agreed to make but were not in production yet.
The negotiations between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO, and Steve Jobs were very difficult.
Finally, in 2006, Disney bought Pixar. Jobs still held 50% of Pixar stock, which after the deal translated into 7% of Disney stock. Lasseter got upgraded to Chief Creative Officer of Disney AND Pixar, and also works on rides for the theme parks.
The result of all that is a very complicated relationship between Pixar and Disney. While Disney apparently owns distribution and marketing rights, Pixar is still a separate entity from Disney. I'm not sure exactly how everything works and who gets paid what, but I can tell you with certainty that there is a difference between Disney and Pixar films. Disney, like every other uncreative studio in the country, has jumped on the CG bandwagon and only releases computer animated movies. Meet the Robinsons is NOT Pixar. BOLT is NOT Pixar. Those are Disney movies, made at Disney studios with Disney CG software. Pixar animates at their studios in Emerville, CA, and uses, among other things, RenderMan.

Pixar has made the following feature films:
(links go to that film's entry in the library catalog so you can order them for yourself. Though you might be better off buying WALL-E for yourself because there's 730 holds, and it looks like the library copy is the one-disc, not the special edition 3-disc)

Toy Story -1995
A Bug's Life - 1998
Toy Story 2 - 1999
Monsters Inc. - 2001
Finding Nemo - 2003
The Incredibles - 2004
Cars - 2006
Ratatouille - 2007
WALL-E - 2008

And they will be releasing the following films:
Up in theatres May 29, 2009
Toy Story 3 in theatres June 18, 2010
Cars 2 in theatres 2011^[1]
The Bear and the Bow in theatres around December 25, 2011^[1]
Newt in theatres Summer 2012^[2]

Awards
Every Pixar film starting in 2001 has been nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, only starting with Monsters Inc. because the award didn't exist before then. Of those, only Monsters Inc. and Cars haven't won, losing to Shrek and Happy Feet, respectively Everything Pixar has ever made has won awards, but the total is far too large to completely list. See the previous link for the wikipedia article if you want to see ALL the awards. (and I mean all, everything from the Annies to Spike TV's Scream Awards) Here's just the Oscar wins and nominations:

Academy Awards

1995: Toy Story

• Best Original Score - Musical or Comedy
• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Original Song, "You've Got a Friend"

1998: A Bug's Life

• Best Original Score - Musical or Comedy

1999: Toy Story 2

• Best Original Song, "When She Loved Me"

2001: Monsters, Inc.

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Original Score
• Best Original Song, "If I Didn't Have You"
• Best Sound Editing

2003: Finding Nemo

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Original Score
• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Sound Editing

2004: The Incredibles

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Sound Editing
• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Sound Mixing

2006: Cars

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Original Song, "Our Town"

2008: Ratatouille

• Best Animated Feature
• Best Music, Original Score
• Best Sound Editing
• Best Sound Mixing
• Best Original Screenplay

If you're interested in learning more about Pixar, head to that wikipedia article, the official Pixar website, The (unofficial, but very reliable) Pixar Blog, or this book that was just published.

EDIT: WALL-E is nominated for Grammy Awards for: Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (Thomas Newman), Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (For the track "Down To Earth"; Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman), and Best Instrumental Arrangement (For the track "Define Dancing"; Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman).

Reviews #5--Code Geass

When Uncle Yo declared his campaign for Kira/Zero '08, I didn't know who Zero was, but how much worse can you get than Kira? Guy with a magic killing notebook who wants to kill all the "bad" people in the world? How about guy who can force anyone to obey him when he makes eye contact? They're both brilliant, but clinically insane. And, so, simply because they are the most absurd, and yet still remarkably qualified presidential candidates... KIRA/ZERO '08!

On to the review. Code Geass is one of those new ones that I'd heard of but hadn't had the chance to watch. To be honest, all I've read/watched for about 3 months now is Shonen Jump, and various things by CLAMP and Yu Watase. What made me decide to finally watch it was a combination of: a) I did not have school yesterday, b) the "Adult Swim moved it to the death block?!" controversy, and c) Megan Hollingshead has a recurring role. So I get on wikipedia and search for her character. I spent most of yesterday afternoon between List of Code Geass Episodes, List of Code Geass Characters, and Youtube. The episodes told me that Megan's character, Villetta Nu, was in episode 14. So I went to episode 14. In the last about 5 minutes of the episode, she says all of ONE WORD. Feeling cheated, I go on to 15, which she's also in. Well, I get a whole awkward minute this time. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--as a female viewer, I do NOT appreciate fanservice! But compared to how she is in the beginning of the series, and let's face it, just about everyone she's ever voiced outside of Nurse Joy, she was cuuuuute. I kept watching. By midnight last night, I had watched episodes 1, 2, 14-19, and 21-25. 21 had the most of her, and the most of me going... "WTF, a nice character?!" Seriously, she is a really sweet character when she doesn't know who she is. That must make episode 25 especially painful for Ohgi...
Code Geass takes place in post-conquered-by-England Japan, instead of just plain old post-apocalyptic Japan. The Holy Empire of Britannia rules half of Europe, (though not Britain itself??) Russia, half of Africa, both of the Americas, Iceland, Greenland, New Zealand, and Japan. The Chinese Federation and the European Union are the other two superpowers, but a few nations, like Australia, Germany, and Britain, are neutral. I don't know what China holds and what Europe holds, and I don't really care. Here's a map from season 2 when they create the UFN, and it's just Britannia versus everyone else.

For seven years, Britannia has been oppressing Japan, renaming it "Area 11", and dubbing its citizens "elevens" rather than Japanese. Needless to say, the Japanese are not happy with this.

On to the actual main characters. Lelouch is basically Light Yagami, but a slightly better chance of being straight. Despite being the leader of the most successful Japanese rebel group, he is, in fact, a Britannian Prince: Lelouch Vi Britannia. He gives up that name for Lelouch Lamperouge. You really have to love Japanese people trying to make up English names. Especially when they managed to get REAL English names, and the dubbers use the literal Japanese pronunciation. (Karen! Karen! Not "Kallen!")
One day, he gets mixed up with some eleven terrorists, and winds up meeting a mysterious girl named C.C. (pronounced "C2") who wound up being the terrorists' cargo, instead of the expected poison gas. The Britannia army shows up and tries to kill Lelouch, but the girl takes the bullet, saying "he must not die!". Despite taking the bullet between the eyes, she does not yet die, and makes a contact with Lelouch. In exchange for some great mysterious power that not only can save him from the dozen soldiers, but let him change the world, he must fulfill her greatest wish. Power corrupts, you will be isolated because of your power, blah blah, Lelouch accepts, and orders the men to die. Which they do, in splendid fashion, each pulling out their gun, and happily shouting "with pleasure, sir!" Anyone see The Happening? Yeah.

It progresses from there, with Lelouch comandeering Villetta Nu's Knightmare Frame (the mechas) though his new power. (while I think about how much work would it take to get audio from Code Geass and sync it to season 4, or at least episode 173?) He creates an alternate identity, "Zero", leader of the Black Knights, which is formed from the old terrorist group that this whole mess started with. Their current leader, Ohgi, becomes the other half of what is well on its way to becoming my second-favorite pairing. I'll hide the next part in case anyone cares about spoilers.
Reasons I'm now in love with Ohgi/Villetta: (highlight to see) First off, my favorite paring is Jounouchi/Mai. That's pretty much set in stone. What happens between Jou and Mai? They don't get along at first, then they're good friends, she duels a crazy guy and forgets who he is, remembers him, gets penalty game'd, he tries to save her, she is saved but not by him, then she comes back next season and tries to kill him because she's emo over the penalty game. What happens between Viletta and Ohgi? They're on opposite sides. He finds her left for dead, takes her back to his apartment, where she can't remember anything. They get along really well, then she remembers who she is, and shoots him in the stomach. I haven't seen the rest of it yet, I'm quoting from wikipedia now. Later on, he stops someone from shooting her, Then there's something where he's going to be executed but he isn't and she's happy. then she's just going to kill him, he confesses his love for her, they get ambushed, Sayoko tries to kill her, Ohgi jumps in the way, takes two knives in the chest, falls off a cliff, and even though she was about to kill him, Villetta jumps off the cliff after him. I bold because that was just about EXACTLY what happened in Doom. Then they take her hostage to ensure Ohgi's cooperation, but she gets out, and eventually she winds up pregnant with his child and they get married. (I said spoilers, didn't I?) So I like the pairing. Also, she's fanservice-y, (not that I like that, just that it's in common with Mai) she's a good fighter, she's voiced by Megan Hollingshead. He's a good guy, kind of the second-in-command, nice, also a good fighter, reaaally cute and shy with her, and... well, looks and sounds nothing like Jou, but the rest is close enough. I love the pairing. Really. How they meet is the most common polarshipping fanfic plot.


I haven't seen enough to pass total series judgment, but for episode 1, I'm going to give it around a B+. It just feels too much like Death Note, and I do not like Lelouch. At all. I can't even believe that his name is Lelouch. I haven't seen a name that ridiculous since Breaking Dawn.
The artwork is fantastic (they must really have a nice budget for this show, because I was regularly pointing and going "hey, that was really well done!"!) the plot is... interesting, if not entirely original. I think it's funny, actually; Gurren Lagann is... well, not a TYPICAL mecha anime, but more typical than CG, and Geass is the embodiment of nearly every well-known anime type there is. High school, Mecha, post-apocalyptic Japan, AND Death Note. (and FMA brother speeches in the second season) There's even some swordfighting/samurai stuff with Suzaku and Todoh, and the Kyoto families, and some references to Western religion when Zero calls himself a "Messiah" and says another character will be his "Pilate". About all we're missing is a sports team and some ninjas. EDIT: (anime fall) It's got a ninja. -_-;;

I'm going to recommend it, even though I still consider it a pale imitation of Death Note. While Death Note is the best in its genre, BECAUSE Code Geass combines so many different elements, it's really interesting. It can get confusing keeping track of the characters, something that Death Note didn't usually have to worry about, but I personally like shows with large casts and multiple plotlines, because it keeps things moving. It depends though on HOW those plotlines are executed. I think Geass on the whole does a pretty good job, giving enough time to characters that aren't Lelouch to clearly explain what's going on, and keeping interest. They cut out all the unnecessary stuff and just give you what you need to know. Even, say, when Cornelia and Euphemia were hanging out together, and they were just lying on the grass, it wasn't boring (well, nothing's boring when you start at episode 14) and it served to characterize both Euphie and Cornelia, but it wasn't a whole episode. Fullmetal Alchemist, I love you to death, but... episode 16? How many ways do we REALLY need to define that they boys want to get their limbs back?
So Geass keeps things moving, has very nice artwork, and has a little something for everyone. Mechas, bishonens, two boys you could pair if you were so inclined, romance, crazy guy with a chainsaw, post-destruction Toyko, high school uniforms, a little crippled girl, a cat, and a mysterious magic girl who can't die. WARNING! Fanservice! There were two episodes that I thankfully was watching dubbed that had things actually blurred. 16/17+, for violence, fanservice, language, and crazy take-over-the-world plots. I'm also recommending it just because it's so popular, and you might feel out of the loop if you don't have at least basic knowledge.

EDIT: Now after having seen the whole first season, I'm going to change my grade to an A-. It manages to combine all those different plotlines fairly well, and the artwork is amazing. Some of the characters really pulled me in, too. Lelouch, Suzaku, and the whole high school cast can go die in a hole for all I care, but I actually really like most of the Britannia cast. Euphie, Cornelia, Guilford, Villetta, Dalton, Lloyd, and whatsherface that works with Lloyd. Todou's pretty cool, and Ougi I like by default since he's with Villetta, and C2. Everyone else either bores me or has a past full of angst posing as character development. I don't like Lelouch because all he is is one big ball of ANGST. Blind crippled sister, dead mother, fighting against best friend (that he never smiles or jokes with or ANYTHING), whole "the world is rotten and I want to change it" Light Yagami complex, Shirley, Mao, Euphie, and evil father. Light, at least, didn't have any angst. ANY. He was a genius with a nice, well-off family that hated the world.
Good artwork, great plot, but lacking a bit with character development. Before you watch it, remember, Adult Swim rates it 17+!

Bethel Park Anime #27--Behind the Scenes

Alright, so I haven't quite exhausted the vast amount of anime stuff to talk about that doesn't involve reviewing specific titles. I started to write this about voice acting, due to the sudden re-kindling of my desire to meet Megan Hollingshead, who I just found out is RANGIKU on Bleach!
Not that I like Rangiku all that much, just that it's such a main role in a current popular anime. She wasn't really in much for a while, totally destroying any chance of her coming to a con. She still hasn't been to a con in 3 years, but I hope that'll change someday. I have to hope. Either that or get to Youmacon and meet Wayne Grayson.

Anyway, to the article. What exactly goes into producing anime? Well, first there's the animation technique. There's a dozen different ways of "animating", but the most commonly known and the one we'll be talking about is "traditional animation", "cel animation", "hand-drawn", or "classic". A cartoon. (as opposed to stop-motion, claymation, model animation, puppet animation, the one where you take flat piece and put them together, and of course, 3D animation)
The first thing done in ANY animation project is storyboarding. Storyboards look something like a comic strip, being a series of panels showing what the director wants to be animated, and the dialogue. (no word bubbles, though)
After the storyboard is drawn, character designs and model sheets are drawn. Then the backgrounds are chosen, based on the angles of the camera and positions of the characters.

Then the actual drawing of characters begins. Wikipedia does a much better job of explaining this than me, and let's face it, I'm just rephrasing what they say anyway. The first drawings are done by the key animator, who animates, as the name implies "key" frames. In a 16-frame per second animation, I guess that would be something like 4 or 5 frames. The animator constantly checks their work, and in American animation, where the voices are recorded first, the drawings are scanned and checked to see that the voices fit. The clean-up artists trace the key animators' work onto a clean sheet. Then the in-betweeners come in and finish all the stuff that the key animator didn't draw.

This is where things have started to drastically change. Here's how it to used to work:
Backgrounds are typically one big acrylic piece that the cellulose sheets are moved over. All the character animation is eventually transfered to cels, so called because they are made of cellulose, either by inking or photocopying. They are then colored, and finally, the filming process can begin.
Cels are placed on the background and filmed with an animation camera. They are moved for every frame, reminiscent of stop-motion animation.

Nowadays all of that is done digitally. I quote, "The last major feature film to use traditional ink and paint was Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke (1997);" Miyazaki himself drew around 80,000 frames of that film, and personally checked every of the 144,000.

After all the visuals are done, the voices, background music, and sound effects are added. I assume that voices are recorded afterwards to cut down on the budget, simplifying the animation from a specific mouth movement to a mouth just moving up and down. This also makes it very practical to dub anime into other languages, since there is very rarely a problem with another language not fitting the shape of the mouthflaps. There are times where specific sounds are animated, usually when a character is making an effort to say something. Offhand, the only example I can think of is from Yuugiou. (that will be the only offhand example of things I know VERY often) Episode 77, (Oh yes, I know the exact number. I go waaay beyond dork with this series, let me tell you.) part three of possessed Jounouchi (Joey) and Yuugi's death duel, Yuugi tries to break Malik's (Marik) possession by talking to Jou about his sister, Shizuka. Jounouchi, as a sign of the mind control weakening, says her name, and each syllable is animated. (Shi-zu-ka) Well, ironically enough, her name is the most accurately translated. "Shizuka" roughly translates to "peace" or "calm". Her name was translated as "Serenity". Unfortunately, this has one too many syllables for this particular scene, since there's really no other way to translate what was happening. This was solved easily enough, by having the English voice (Wayne Grayson) simply match the first three syllables to the mouthflaps, and let the fourth be spoken while transitioning to the flashback. The names are similar enough that the different word dubbed to the specific mouthflaps is unnoticeable.

The voice acting process in America can be found on the special features of a plethora of American released anime DVDs. The script is re-written for English to match mouthflaps, and hopefully keeping the dialogue still sounding like normal, well, dialogue. (I'm looking at you, early episodes of Bleach--"so what exactly the heck is that thing over there that I'm looking at?") Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the best examples of good American script adaption I know of.
The voice actors individually go into the studio and record their lines. They go into a booth, get a pair of headphones and a mike--all standard in any animation--and they watch the Japanese version. After they know what they're dubbing over, they get three beeps, and where the fourth would be, they start speaking the line, while the animation still plays so they can see what they're doing. (I think.)

Along with voices, background music and sound effects are added. Music is typically pre-recorded, and certain tracks are played depending on what the animators need for a scene. For example, this time in Fullmetal Alchemist, there is a very well-known (to fans of the series) theme for Ed and Al called "Brothers". There is a single recording of this, which is manipulated for each episode it is used in, rather than having an orchestra sit down and record for each episode.
I have very little idea how sound effects work in anime. I know a tiny bit from watching Avatar commentaries, and that it involves manipulating normal sounds, slowing, speeding, etc.

Finally, it's all put together and shown on TV, released on DVD, ripped to computers and fansubbed, and eventually, brought to America! Where they redub it, and hopefully leae it otherwise unchanged. Or 4kids gets it and dubs out anything remotely offensive or not-American. Which apparently are the same thing. -_-;;


Now, being fictional characters, we as fans can never meet our characters. We can, however, meet the voices that play them, and so voice actors are celebrities in our otaku world. As you can tell from my ramblings on Megan Hollingshead, Wayne Grayson, etc. I'm starting to get a hold of my obsession now, though. Really. Some voice actors go to conventions; certain very popular ones do just about nothing but go to conventions and voice-act. There is a group called the "50+" who have been to more than 50 conventions total. According to animecons.com, they are:

1. Steve Bennett
2. Robert DeJesus
3. Greg Ayres
4. Tiffany Grant
5. Vic Mignogna
6. Jan Scott-Frazier
7. Doug Smith
8. Monica Rial
9. Emily DeJesus
10. Kyle Hebert
11. Chris Patton
12. Scott McNeil
13. Mike McFarland
14. Toshifumi Yoshida

I've met 5 of them. ^__^ You'll have the chance to meet some of them, too, if you come to Tekko this spring! (don't you love my shameless plugging?)